LOWELL -- Their friends and family members were killed or raped in countries divided by war and civil unrest. Some were too afraid to walk alone on the streets of their hometowns out of fear of being kidnapped or worse. And now they are sharing their stories of their escape from danger and their journey to Lowell.

Fifty Lowell High School students, part of the Lowell Project, wrote a personal essays about their sometimes violent and tragic experiences in their homelands and about their new lives in Lowell full of hope and ambition. The stories, along with bones they made out of newspapers were recently displayed at UnchARTed Studios and will be sent to Washington, D.C., where the bones will be laid out on the National Mall in June as a tribute to victims and survivors of genocide.

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Rafal Thaher, 19, who fled Iraq in 2005, created a skull for the project. Words such as "love," "peace," "dignity," "life," "Lowell," and "Iraq" were written on the skull and near the back of the skull she put a hole in it with red paint dripping out from the hole.

The hole represented the gunshot wound that took her cousin's life. Thaher's 27-year-old cousin Nahalla was shot in the back of the head when a taxi she was riding in entered a restricted area, going past a sign with the words: "Do Not Enter.

Lowell High School student Rafal Thaher, right, of Iraq, accompanied by her mother Nawal Thayb, displays her entry in the One Million Bones display at UnchARTed Studios. Sun Photo/Bob Whitaker

Her mother's family compound was mistakenly bombed by American soldiers, Thaher said. Twenty-three family members died.

Her father received a death threat saying if he didn't leave Baghdad within 24 hours, he and his family would be killed. Thaher's father left and the rest of the family soon followed. They fled to Syria as refugees in 2005 and stayed there almost five years before coming to Lowell.

"In 2005, a lot of people were kidnapped. We were so afraid to go outside alone," she said.

No matter what the conditions were like, Thaher said it was difficult to leave her native country. Her two older brothers are still in Iraq and she hopes they will be reunited with her family in the U.S.

She can now laugh about her first day at Lowell High, the sprawling multi-building downtown campus with a canal running through it and bridges connecting it, but at the time she was walking through the hallways crying because she couldn't find her way.

"It felt like somebody put me in jail because I didn't speak English. I was really shy to talk to other people," she said.

Thaher sees it as her duty to tell people her story.

"I have to tell it," she said. In the U.S., she has a voice.

Fearing for his family

Baraa Al Jubouri, 19, said when he lived in Baghdad during the war, he wasn't afraid for himself, he was afraid for his girlfriend and his family.

Lowell High School's Rolph Joseph sits by his artwork in the One Million Bones project. Sun Photo/Bob Whitaker

"I still can't believe she is dead," Al Jubouri wrote. "She still comes to me in my dreams and she smiles at me."

Al Jubouri, who is still learning to fluently speak English, said he's starting to get used to the stark differences between Iraqi and American culture. He came to Lowell only months ago.

For example, he said, when he used to see a boy and a girl holding hands in public he thought that was so strange, because that is unacceptable in Iraqi culture.

Al Jubouri wants to be a police officer so he can protect people because the police and army failed to protect the people of Iraq.

A two-month journey

Olf Leyinda Mouyaka escaped from Brazzaville, the capital city of Congo, when he was 6. He walked with his mother, two sisters and older brother from their home to Gabon. The journey took several months. The family walked at night to avoid being caught by soldiers.

The Congo was in a civil war. Those who lived in the south were being forced out by those in the north who were in power.

Although he was a young boy, Leyinda Mouyaka remembers when his 12-year-old cousin was shot in the forearm. Struck by an exchange of gunfire in the night.

"It's painful to remember. He was bleeding all over," Leyinda Mouyaka said, but his cousin kept walking.

Leyinda Mouyaka remembers his feet being swollen, not being able to change his clothes and his mother carrying him when he no longer had the strength to walk on his own.

Life in Gabon was still hard. Congolese people were not welcome there. Leyinda Mouyaka said if someone found out where he was from, he would have been sent back.

He tried hard to fit in with the Gabonese people. His accent was different, so he tried not to speak much. He went to school and then came home living a quiet existence.

His mother applied for resettlement in the U.S. and told her children on the day they were leaving.

"It was a relief," Leyinda Mouyaka said.

When he came to Lowell High School, teacher Deb Fowler taught him English beginning with the ABCs. He excelled through his language classes and is now enrolled in honors courses as a senior. It was frustrating not being able to communicate, he said.

"All I want to do is tell people my story," he said.

He helps new refugees. He interns at the district's student-support services office and works at the National Historical Park in the summer.

"I can relate to those kids. I know how hard it is to know the answer and not be able to speak it," he said.

Bringing all together

As part of the Learners Lab at Lowell High, the students' stories will be collected into an online book. Renowned percussionist Tony Vacca will lead a workshop at the Rogers School with the refugee students and kindergarten students. The project is funded by the Lowell Cultural Council.

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